Reflections on teaching, learning, and leadership from a middle school administrator.

Tuesday, March 17, 2015

What's More Important...Computers or Skills?

I can honestly say these past two years have been an
incredible learning curve for me. I had an opportunity to change jobs, not once
but twice, and took both of them! The first was a lateral move from one school to
another in the same division. The building itself was the same exact floorplan
of my former school. They even underwent renovations at the same time. The layout was where the similarities ended. Each school had its own distinguishable heartbeat. The students, staff, parents and community members
made both buildings amazing in their own unique ways.

Just when I felt as if I had my bearings about me in my new environment,
opportunity once again arose. Timing however, was lousy. The position had
posted at the end of August, and I was excited about starting the school year where I was. We were
scheduled to get Chromebooks for every student, and were anxious to see how
this would change how teaching and learning would take place. Regardless, the
position was an advancement that was too good to turn down. Needless to say, I got the job!

For the third time in my career, I was starting a new position in a leadership role after the school year had already started. While it seemed really inconvenient at first, I ended up being really glad things happened the way they did. I got to see a school full of students and teachers experience 1:1 learning for the very first time. A week and a half later, I was in a completely different school system working with students and teachers who have known 1:1 learning for over a decade. Looking back on the experience, I learned something pretty valuable. Just because you have given every student in your building or division a laptop, tablet, or Chromebook; it doesn't mean you have done anything innovative. How that tool is applied to the instructional process determines innovation. We live in an age during which the majority of our students in the US have access to some form of mobile technology in their daily life. Kids are walking into school expecting to have access to technology to complete their schoolwork, record assignments, and work on projects. Collaborating and sharing online are second nature to them. Things like presenting, organizing, problem solving, and working with others, however, are not necessarily second nature. I've seen plenty of people who know their way around a computer who don't have any of the other "21st Century" skills I mentioned above. This is a time of year during which many of us in education turn towards the planning process for the upcoming school year. Some of us may be tasked with preparing for a 1:1 initiative. My advice to you? Make sure your teachers and staff are comfortable with teaching 21st Century Skills, or those skills needed to be successful in the modern learning process. If they aren't, you are just going to end up with a lot of kids who know their way around a computer. We have plenty of those already.